Samuel was the last of the judges and the first of the prophets.
His mother was barren, but she promised that if God would give her a child,
she would give him for service to the Lord. First we read her song of rejoicing that
she has been granted a son, and then we read about the capture of the Ark of the
Covenant and the death of Eli, the priest who raised Samuel.

Note that the Israelites lost the battle. It's a long story, but here's the summary:
They were having trouble with the Philistines, so they went to get their
"God in a box" (the Ark) and bring him to the battlefield so that he would be forced
to fight for them. God doesn't work that way, so as an object lesson to the
Israelites, he gave the battle to the Philistines, who were showing him a lot more
respect.

1 Samuel 3:1-20, 1 Kings 17:8-24

Hannah was barren. This was a calamity for a Jewish woman, on two counts--first,
everyone attributed her barrenness to some fault in her, and second, she had no one
to take care of her in her old age. Even worse, Hannah's husband Elkanah's other
wife had children. Hannah made a vow that if the LORD would grant her a son, she
would dedicate him as a Nazirite for his whole life. She prayed so fervently before
the LORD that the priest, Eli, rebuked her for drunkenness. When she explained her
grief, he gave her a blessing. A year later, she had a son, Samuel. From the time
he was weaned, he was raised by Eli. Each year, Hannah would bring Samuel a new coat.
Our passage today tells what happened while he was a child. Samuel was a mighty man
of God, the first of the prophets, and a king-maker who anointed both Saul and David.

In our reading from 1 Kings, the widow is in a similar position--without her son, she
would be completely destitute.

By the way, the words "May God do so to you (more often 'me') and more also" are a
stylized way of replacing the actual words spoken, which invoked a curse on the hearer
(or speaker) if he or she didn't perform the action in question. The writer didn't
want the curse on himself, so he put these words in instead. It means roughly—and
complete with dashes— "I'll be d---d if I" … let that happen/don't do this/let you do
this, or whatever. It's a very common idiom in the OT.

Random Walk in a Gallery of Religious Art, Step 57: 1 Samuel 15:1-3, 9-30, The Sacrifice of Saul, by John Pinas or Rombout van Troyen(8/18/15)

One of the problems modern genealogists face is that the Internet is a wealth of information, but unfortunately a lot of it is misinformation or even disinformation! Sorting the true from the false is as difficult as it’s always been, but now there’s much more to sort through. The same is true about Biblical and theological commentary – please be very, very cautious about believing what you see on some web sites, starting with mine. I try to do my part by not posting stuff I know to be false, but an error is bound to be repeated a thousand times. I also try not to post hateful, unChristian stuff, or judgmental stuff, but I’m human, and sometimes something slips through that sounds worse than I intended. You should let me know.

Anyway, this picture seems to be The Sacrifice of Saul, by either J. Pinas or Rombout van Troyen, but I can’t find a truly authoritative reference, so who knows? (There’s a similar painting by van Troyen called The Daughter of Jephthah.)

I said in the previous step that David was in trouble with Nathan, and Saul was in trouble with Samuel. What did Saul do that was so bad? He disobeyed God directly by sparing Agag; he disobeyed indirectly by letting the people disobey God; he lost confidence in God and started sacrificing before Samuel arrived; and he blamed everybody else for what he had done. In short, he was rebellious and arrogant. And to top it all off, he isn’t even sorry – “Yeah, yeah, I’ve sinned,” he says. “But just don’t tell the people.”

"The Sacrifice of Saul" by John Pinas or Rombout van Troyen, from the Gamble family Bible, now in the private collection of Regina Hunter.

1 Samuel 15:34-16:13(6/9/09)

Do you remember Richard Nixon? He is a tragic figure in American history. Here was a man who devoted his entire career to public service, finally made it to the top, did at least a couple of things that could have qualified him for a "top ten" list, and then blew it. His story and Saul's story are the samestory. When you read about Saul, you don't know whether to be sorry or amazed. How could somebody to whom God had given so much talent and such a great opportunity make such a mess of things? (Certainly we would have done better than that, right?) God was sorry about Saul, but that didn't prevent him from finding someone else to take his place as the founder of a dynasty to inherit the earthly kingdom of God.

Back in the bad old days when I worked, I had a boss that used to refer to unfunded work that should be done anyway as "God's work." The Philistines were a wealthy world power – you probably read about them in your history classes as the Phoenicians. The infant kingdom of Israel was not. The Philistines had horses and chariots; Israel had foot soldiers. The Philistines were in the Iron Age; Israel was still in the bronze age. So all in all, Saul and the army of Israel were showing keen insight and good military judgment when they were dismayed and greatly afraid.

David saw the situation differently. He wasn't concerned with the big picture, but rather with the small piece of the big picture that was directly in front of him: Goliath. True, Goliath was a big guy, and well-armed, but David sized him up and decided that overall he wasn't any bigger or better armed than a lion or a bear. And besides that, he was an uncircumcised Philistine who had the effrontery to taunt the armies of the living God. David decided that somebody had to do God's work, and that the somebody was apparently him. God doesn't expect us to solve the problems of the whole world, but he does expect us to attack the small piece of the problem that's directly in front of us.

1 Samuel 17:34-51(4/27/09)

Shepherding was a respected profession in ancient Israel. Jacob, Moses, and David were all shepherds. Abraham was considered a man of great wealth because of the size of his flocks and herds. Shepherding wasn't an easy job: the hours were long, the responsibilities were great, and the work was dangerous. In addition to finding pasture and water, delivering lambs, and locating strays, the shepherd had to protect the flock from wild animals. Asiatic lions are smaller than African lions, but formidable nevertheless at 250 to 400 pounds. The Syrian brown bear is the smallest variety of brown bear (which includes grizzlies and Kodiak bears), weighing in the neighborhood of 200 to 300 pounds. The Palestinian shepherd also had to deal with smaller predators like the Iranian wolf (55 to 70 pounds) and the leopard (100 pounds or so). Because he routinely had to deal with lions and bears in order to protect his flock, David had no fear of the Philistine champion Goliath. "The LORD has saved me from lions and bears," David said, "he will save me from this Philistine."

Opinions expressed on this page are solely those of the
author, Regina Hunter, and may or may not be shared by the sponsors or the
Bible-study participants. Thanks to the
Holy Spirit for any useful ideas presented here, and thanks to all the readers
for their support and enthusiasm. All
errors are, of course, the sole responsibility of the author.

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